Good Gig, Bad Gig.

[alphawave]

Had some right cracking nights so far,people really up for a good time BUT I did a ladys 50th and was not to good.... I had no playlist so i started with normal party music which always works.Time is 9pm so everyone had some food so lets get going - I played Abba then saw the birthday lady run up to me telling me she was old but not that old and change style now... So i went modern dance and cleared the floor i then tryed again with some classics only to see her shouting at her friend to come and speak to me....and she did..... So we had 3 hours of modern music which didnt work . So i was pleased when my finish time of 12am came so i switched every off,at this point only about 10 people sat at tables THEN another friend comes back to me and asks "whats going on,why you packing up"?? I explained that the brewery where i was playing all events had to finish on time which is true.... He then asked why i never played his song but i did... He then waited outside and watched me pack up... What you do in the situation ??

[Nakatomi]

Had some right cracking nights so far,people really up for a good time BUT I did a ladys 50th and was not to good.... I had no playlist so i started with normal party music which always works.Time is 9pm so everyone had some food so lets get going - I played Abba then saw the birthday lady run up to me telling me she was old but not that old and change style now... So i went modern dance and cleared the floor i then tryed again with some classics only to see her shouting at her friend to come and speak to me....and she did..... So we had 3 hours of modern music which didnt work . So i was pleased when my finish time of 12am came so i switched every off,at this point only about 10 people sat at tables THEN another friend comes back to me and asks "whats going on,why you packing up"?? I explained that the brewery where i was playing all events had to finish on time which is true.... He then asked why i never played his song but i did... He then waited outside and watched me pack up... What you do in the situation ??

Faced with a customer who is dissatisfied but is being too vague, I always try to help out by asking some searching questions of them along the lines of "Okay, so what do you like & I'll play things like that for you?". Details can be more important than people realise (cue loads of stories about "have you got the one that goes 'DERRRRRR DEEE DERRRRRRRRRRRRRR DUMMMMMMMMMMMMM DE DUMMMMMM... ?" and "oh, course you know it, she's wearing a pink hat in the video!").

[alphawave]

On a more positive note i did a birthday party start of December and it rocked,anything i chucked at them they went wild ... I do also feel many people were in the xmas spirit mood which helped me and numbers were up because the event was held in a local village so one had to pay out for taxis etc..... 9pm to 12am was solid and full of cheese even The Wursels got a play... Next gig is New Year Eve ...

[dicky]

Had an interesting evening on Christmas Eve

Things were quiet until about 9pm when a young crowd gathered in the function room. There was a more mixed age group in the bar

Playing to the age group in the room, I put plenty of up to date stuff on - even Uptown Funk! but couldn't get any sort of response, they seemed mostly interested in drinking and playing with their mobile phones... doesn't anyone actually talk when socialising any more?

After a while one of the girls comes up and asks for some Beatles!!! OK I thought - no problem so on goes four beatles tracks, this caused some waving of arms tapping of feet and singing but nothing much else

As the last ofthe Beatles tracks was Roll Over Beethoven, this took me nicely into a bit of RocknRoll - I thought maybe some of the folks in the bar would come in but no. Well we had Johnny B Good, and Eddie Cochran C'mon Everybody and these seemed to generate more foot tapping amongst the crowd (a fewmore had gathered and the room was filling)

Followed that by Queen 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' which brought me nicely into Don't Stop Me Now (no reaction from the crowd) and Meatloaf Paradise By the Dashboard light.... still no reaction but a guy askes for ACDC Highway to Hell. OK that goes on, no reaction apart for a bit of singalong

Then the same girl comes over, says 'Hi I've been nominated to ask for requests..... have you got any Happy Mondays or Stone Roses?'

'Ahh you like the Hacienda sounds?' 'Yeah'.... Oh and have you got any 'Fleetwod Mac' I thought that a bit of an odd request but yeah sure I have

So on goes Happy Mondays Step On and one or two get up and Dance

Follow that with Stone Roses 'Fools Gold' and a couple of them keep on dancing

I decided to stick with this genre a bit..... lined up 'Primal Scream - Loaded' (a classic IMHO) and 'EMF Unbelievable'


At this point the guy who owns the pub is in my face giving me some hassle

'Are they requesting this stuff he asks?

'Yeah'

Well I don't know any of it... nobody in the bar knows it....

'But they are dancing in here'

Well anyone who comes into the pub will wonder what on earth this is.... ignore this lot and please stick to mainstream stuff!!!

'OK well it's your pub'

So I skip the Primal Scream (shame!) and go straight to EMF.

They stop dancing and come and request Firestarter instead!

OK we have EMF the on goes Prodigy Firestarter

Three or four are dancing and the pub owner is in my face again.

'Look I asked you to stick to mainstream stuff!!!'

Err but Unbelivable was a number one in the early 90s and this track was a massive number one hit and considered an out-n-out classic

Well I never heard it. When I booked the disco I expected to hear disco and soul music, not some number one from 20 years ago that no one knows!!

'but THEY'RE dancing to it'

Put some soul on so the wife and some of the folks in the bar can dance

OK OK so on goes Disco Inferno.... Billy Ocean 'Love Really Hurts' (actually the youngsters liked this too!) and some Motown. His wife and friends come in and dance..... Some of the young crowd dance..... then the pub owner comes over again

'Sorry Rich I have to apologise... I talked to my son and daughter and they told me what you were playing IS disco music' Play what you like, and see if you can keep this crowd in for the night. I'm sorry'


So after a couple more motown on goes Pharrel 'Happy'

That rammed it!!

The bar owner had me announce that everyone in he room could have a voucher for a free drink if they come on Boxing Day..... loud cheers to that one!

From then all was easy..... Uptown Funk! requested again.... room was slamming... an inundation of requests of current chart hits (plus some I chucked in) all went down great. Lots of good stuff, Taylor Swift, some Rnb (Usher etc) and that sl;ightly annoying 'All About The Bass song' and then we set the smoke alarms off!!! so quick break while they opened the doors and cleared the smoke out... then back to the music

Oh the 'Fleetwood Mac' girl is back over.... did you forget my request?

Err no, but Fleetwood is not really 'dancy' stuff.

Please play it and we will dance

So on goes Fleetwood Mac 'Everywhere'. They loved it and they did dance

More current hits right up until Midnight (Klingande - Jubel' was very popular... I love that track, as was Duke Dumont 'Won't Look Back')

At midnight we went over to Chrstmas songs for 20 mins then wound up with a request for something I played earlier to no response 'Queen DOn't Stop Me Now' They loved it!!!

All finish at 12:30

I had a chat with the bar owner he was very happy now and he apologised again.. said something like 'Rich, I'm 56 and don't know all that music but you were right it was what they wanted' I couldn't resist the reply

'well I'm only just behind you at 55 mate, but I do what I am doing with that music... which is why I am DJing and you are not'



Anyway it turns out now they are gonna try and cultivate this younger crowd who apparently come in every weekend for a few vodkas they go elsewhere. I know there is no where else they can go at this end of the ecity for a proper disco or arn't they called clubs now lol so think it could become a really busy and great venue. So I've definitely got that residency starting 2nd Saturday in January - but playing current dance hits.

Whether he still wants the Thusday night Soul nights as well I didn't ask!



Rich

[Excalibur]

I had a chat with the bar owner he was very happy now and he apologised again.. said something like 'Rich, I'm 56 and don't know all that music but you were right it was what they wanted' I couldn't resist the reply

'well I'm only just behind you at 55 mate, but I do what I am doing with that music... which is why I am DJing and you are not'

Well fielded, Sir. Seems you were between a rock and a hard place.

My Xmas Eve was a family party in Sheffield, with two hours of childrens entertainment provided by Keith, who was excellent, Santa giving out presents ( who most uncharitably underran by twenty minutes. I suppose I can let him off, cos he was marginally busier than me that night. ) and an early start for me for a couple of hours, plus Santa's shortfall. Went well enough, except there's a gremlin in my sound system. Hope it's the playout I was using, and not the PA. Derig as quickly as possible, shove it in the motor, and back to the social club, where there's one set up earlier, and finish the night in there. Back tonight for Karaoke there, and then NYE. Hope I've got the gremlins out by then.

[dicky]

Back on for tonight too 7:30 till 11pm-ish. My kit still set up since Weds.

Hope that some folks make it tonight what with all this snow down unless they decide to call it a night early and I still get paid

First song tonight.... definitely gotta be 'Love Unlimited - It May Be Winter Outside!!!'

Put everything back in storage tomorrow then a bit of last minute shopping, get the cases packed, down to Birmingham Monday afternoon for an overnight then early early flight on Tuesday to Tenerife where today was 24C...... and not coming back till the 6th Jan. That'll do for me... lovely!

Rich
PS forgot to mention - I only had two requests xmas eve that I did not have, one was some Justin Timberlake that I can't quite recall but sure I will find when I look through his discography and the other my middle age brain has forgotten all together lol

[Excalibur]

.

Hope that some folks make it tonight what with all this snow down unless they decide to call it a night early and I still get paid

First song tonight.... definitely gotta be 'Love Unlimited - It May Be Winter Outside!!!'

Snow? Snow?? Round here folk are building arks. It's hissing it down.

[dicky]

As it turned out hardly anyone did make it last night but we had a good party with about 10 of us in the room! Everyone got some requests played and partied together even though they did not all know each other. Was fun.

Knocked off early but still got paid though

Just gotta see if I can get my van out this morning to move all the kit back to storage (I'm watching the occasional car this morning coming round the corner and trying to get up our street but can't so they slide back down and go back the way they came). Fortunately that's the way I am going Probably be OK in the van but for sure my car is not going anywhere till this thaws out!! (see pic)

Walked to the venue last night as it is only a mile away and driving there just wasn't gonna happen

Rich

[Imagine]

My first New Year's Eve back in the game and I've literally only just walked back in the door at 4am (and I was only 10 miles away!)

Brilliant night in a pub which has been closed for the past two years. One of those affairs where the Gigbar just worked and was exactly right for the occasion as I was stuck in a corner of the main bar.

I got set up and felt a bit disheartened to start with.....it's only a small pub in a small Fenland village so was expecting it to be a quiet and slow night....and for the first three hours it was (I'm sure tracks were finishing at twice the speed they should have been).

11pm....boom! The entire bar is full of drunken revellers up for a party
11:30 - landlord comes up and says that everyone needs to be out on the street for Big Ben at midnight (apparently a local tradition). Sure enough, announced this at five to and everyone went outside. I cranked up the Mastermix NYE track with Big Ben on it so they could hear it and on the stroke of midnight they literally linked arms across the street and did Auld Lang Syne.

Back indoors, floor's heaving again. Couldn't have played a dud track if I tried, everything from Nicki Menaj, Killers, Guns 'n' Roses, to the Cha Cha Slide and worse (they actually came back in to the conga and went right round the building). Uptown Funk went on no less than FIVE times in 3 hours (they just kept asking for it!). Landlord asked if I was OK to carry on after my 1am finish time. We talked fees and carried on....until 3am when he decided he might like to close the bar and go to bed (bear in mind I still need to derig, drive home and unload)

So....very good night with a really good crowd of people. No drunken abuse at all (thought one of them might be trouble....sorry pal I'm not going to play Kanye West to a full floor), but he disappeared after a little while.

I left a very happy bunny with a huge pile of £20 notes in my back pocket and a big smile on my face

Even better - there's already talk of me being there for the same gig next year

Right....time for some sleep. Luckily haven't got to be anywhere except my bed tomorrow

Happy New Year all

[Nakatomi]

Happy New Year everybody!

Like Wayne, last night was my first NYE since rejoining the DJ fraternity.

I was a walk-in at a nearby hotel, which had 2 function rooms fully booked & attended. I was told a while ago that there'd be a 1am finish, but looking at the hotel's website I found mention of 2am & even 2.30am finish times. The manager however was resolute - 2am.. but this was the first his staff had heard of it.

The £50 a head carvery was scoffed, tables cleared & the disco began with 70s.. judging by the age of the crowd I thought it a safe place to start. Nope... though some were up & about on the dancefloor things didn't really take off til I dipped into the 1980s, where we stayed until 11pm & more modern tracks were teased in .. a bit of rotation of the population never does much harm. I kept the floor busy, occasionally giving time checks to build the anticipation level.. and then the assistant manager told me there'd been a change of plan. The piper, due to appear in the room after the midnight countdown was going to be 5 minutes late, so can I delay the countdown? Erm.. considering most people have timepieces these days I thought that was a bad idea so played my prepared Big Ben / Bill Mitchell countdown at 25 seconds to midnight (to get the first bong dead on time( & after the fifth 'bong' I went into The Proclaimers' 500 miles which took the roof off. As luck would have it, just as that track finished the piper appeared, I got everybody to link arms & the awful noise maker launched into Auld Lang Syne followed by Scotland The Brave...

From there, back to the music spanning 4 decades & kept everybody who hadn't left just after midnight up on the floor. I was asked for a card no less than 4 times (four missed opportunities there... DOH) & as people filtered out between then & 2am everybody who passed me thanked me for a wonderful night, though by the time 2am arrived there were only two couples left.. they said they'd have gone to bed ages ago had the music not been so good.

It was almost 3am when I got home after tearing the gear down & stashing it in the DJ pulpit, but more like 3.30 when I got to bed.. then I was up at 7 with my kids. Is it bedtime yet?